[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Realtors, a necessary evil (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/29/2014 6:58:18 AM EDT
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We are in the process of purchasing a new to us home, plus sell our existing house too. So the realtor we pick would be buyer and seller, therefore getting double commissions over $20k  It almost seems like a pyramid scheme or like the mob, there's brokers and agents and then the national company, everyone gets a cut. Plus for the work they do, it pains me to give them the 3%/3% fees ETA: wife and i bought/sold many homes in the past and they're like used car salespeople, once they get their commissions check you don't exist  |
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Had one try to rent a place out from underneath a family member and then hide it by stating the person he gave the key to was responsible.
I told him it was a breach of fiduciary duty (went to a law library and did some research on it first) and that I was going to sue him for $1. He offered to pay me $1 on the spot. I told him that wasn't the point. I paused and left him wondering. I then said that I only wanted to win that $1 to prove his dishonesty and that I was really after his license and was going to make sure the entire community knew about him.  Anyway, we settled out of court. All that for a few hours of research.
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Realtors don't represent anyone but themselves.... They may have the same interest as the seller but the buyer...forget about it. If a buyer tells his realtor....I'll spend $190 if I have too but try to offer them $180...then guess what, you will be spending $190k... He'll tell the other realtor...they can do $190 but we gotta make it look good.
The more $ you spend the more all the realtors make. |
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Quoted:
If you show up at closing as a buyer with no Realtor the selling Realtor still picks up both halves of the commission . You can do it yourself . I have my house listed with a realtor . I hate dealing with people Yeah, representing yourself on the buy side is a much bigger pain in the ass vs the sale side. |
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Quoted:
Realtors don't represent anyone but themselves.... They may have the same interest as the seller but the buyer...forget about it. If a buyer tells his realtor....I'll spend $190 if I have too but try to offer them $180...then guess what, you will be spending $190k... He'll tell the other realtor...they can do $190 but we gotta make it look good. The more $ you spend the more all the realtors make. If by "same interest" you mean "highest sell price", you're absolutely right. But once there's a contract on the table, they don't give a ratfuck what you spend to close the contract. Their commission is set at that point. Ours left us hanging on shit all over the place, and we ended up doing most of the legwork ourselves. The only person that seemed to care was our attorney; she charged a fixed fee and went to bat for us repeatedly. Fuck realtors. |
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We lucked out when searching for a house.
We have a friend of the family who's a Realtor and has his shit together and knew what he was doing and worth every cent he got paid. I wouldn't hesitate to give him a call if I was buying or selling again. They arn't all bad...the good ones are sort of rare from my observations though. |
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Read this: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13108489.
There is at least one good lawyer/realtor in my area who has access to the MLS, a better understanding of the documents than any agent and who bills at an hourly rate for work performed rather than taking a percentage of the selling price. I'll be using him next time I sell/buy. |
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Too much derp in here.
A good realtor is worth twice the standard commission! Bad realtors give good realtors a bad name. Most people have no idea how terribly expensive a bad house purchase or sale can become. It can become ruinous for the average Joe. (I can't wait until this thread brings up how useless title insurance is and how unnecessary it is to use a lawyer to close on the purchase/sale of a home.) |
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If you think Realtors are worthless and don't earn their money, then stop bitching about it and represent yourself. If you aren't really willing to do that, then you just proved yourself wrong.
Or better yet, get yourself a Realtor license and proceed getting rich without doing much work. Report back after a couple of years and let us know how it's going 
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Quoted:
Too much derp in here. A good realtor is worth twice the standard commission! Bad realtors give good realtors a bad name. Most people have no idea how terribly expensive a bad house purchase or sale can become. It can become ruinous for the average Joe. (I can't wait until this thread brings up how useless title insurance is and how unnecessary it is to use a lawyer to close on the purchase/sale of a home.) Title insurance IS worthless if you're too stupid to read the fine print and note that there may be exceptions--since no title company wants to wait 2-3 years for a clear title and often makes assumptions that "it's probably ok," buries it in the fine print, then hopes nothing bad happens, and if it does, you're left holding your dick with a stupid look on your face. Or the title company just refuses to resolve/pay when an issue arises. It's one of those things that if you're not familiar with what title insurance is, you've just wasted money on something that is nothing but a piece of paper. |
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realtors are a waste of oxygen.
They don't even know their own job and for the minimal (and I do mean minimal) work that they do, they are way way way overpaid. 1% TOTAL for both sides is more than enough. Ignore the realtor, pay some listing service to get it on MLS and have a lawyer do the contract (Probably $1000, it's pretty standard, but at least a lawyer has a fiduciary duty to you, no such thing with a realtor) |
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If you show up at closing as a buyer with no Realtor the selling Realtor still picks up both halves of the commission . You can do it yourself . I have my house listed with a realtor . I hate dealing with people You can have the contract written so you as the buyer gets credited for that portion or it can be negotiated out as part of the contract. |
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If you think Realtors are worthless and don't earn their money, then stop bitching about it and represent yourself. If you aren't really willing to do that, then you just proved yourself wrong. Or better yet, get yourself a Realtor license and proceed getting rich without doing much work. Report back after a couple of years and let us know how it's going
This. I hate realtors and seldom use them on my rental properties. Most people bitch but don't have the balls to do it themselves because they struggle at life. 3 or 6 percent sounds like a lot but if recall right the average realtor makes 17-25 dollars an hour when it's all said and down. Not that much money. |
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Quoted:
Too much derp in here. A good realtor is worth twice the standard commission! Bad realtors give good realtors a bad name. Most people have no idea how terribly expensive a bad house purchase or sale can become. It can become ruinous for the average Joe. (I can't wait until this thread brings up how useless title insurance is and how unnecessary it is to use a lawyer to close on the purchase/sale of a home.) A lot of hate in here for realtors. Some bust their ass for their clients for several months until closing. Sometimes closing don't happen, and they had to work for free. Some useless humans use realtors to look at houses for several months, then buy a house FSBO. Useless humans think realtor work for free. Its just like any other profession. You get a cross section of society, so you'll have good and bad. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. |
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. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. baHAHAHAHAHAHAH a good realtor
like finding a chimera or a unicorn. Everyone hears about such things, but no one has ever seen one in person. |
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baHAHAHAHAHAHAH a good realtor
like finding a chimera or a unicorn. Everyone hears about such things, but no one has ever seen one in person. Quoted:
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. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. baHAHAHAHAHAHAH a good realtor
like finding a chimera or a unicorn. Everyone hears about such things, but no one has ever seen one in person. Well that shows your ignorance |
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When I was looking for a house, I fired the first realtor. He was showing me garbage and spouted all sorts of bullshit about VA loans.
The second one did an amazing job and earned every cent of her commission...I recommend her to people looking for a house in my area. I would have never found the place I am in if I had not found this particular agent (it was never on the market). I got a great deal and received everything I was promised. A good realtor can make all the difference sometimes. |
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If you think Realtors are worthless and don't earn their money, then stop bitching about it and represent yourself. If you aren't really willing to do that, then you just proved yourself wrong. Or better yet, get yourself a Realtor license and proceed getting rich without doing much work. Report back after a couple of years and let us know how it's going
Pretty sure your advice is why so many shit bag Realtors exist. A good one is worth his fee. Unfortunately given that most people don't buy or sell more than a couple properties in their life finding a good one is a crap shoot. |
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? Just use a real estate attorney. Flat fee. Represents your interests.This is the only way I will buy a home. The closing attorney was 150 bucks. I can negotiate myself. Think to yourself when your real estate broker drives up in a 50k Cadillac. Scum of the earth including car salespersons, lawyers and current pres of usa. fbho |
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Realtors don't represent anyone but themselves.... They may have the same interest as the seller but the buyer...forget about it. If a buyer tells his realtor....I'll spend $190 if I have too but try to offer them $180...then guess what, you will be spending $190k... He'll tell the other realtor...they can do $190 but we gotta make it look good. The more $ you spend the more all the realtors make. Sounds like you have some shenanigans going on there. If the realtor board found out two realtors were discussing confidential client information they could have their license revoked. Here, no information is shared between realtors. |
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You can have the contract written so you as the buyer gets credited for that portion or it can be negotiated out as part of the contract. Quoted:
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If you show up at closing as a buyer with no Realtor the selling Realtor still picks up both halves of the commission . You can do it yourself . I have my house listed with a realtor . I hate dealing with people You can have the contract written so you as the buyer gets credited for that portion or it can be negotiated out as part of the contract. True but it rarely happens . |
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Pretty sure your advice is why so many shit bag Realtors exist. A good one is worth his fee. Unfortunately given that most people don't buy or sell more than a couple properties in their life finding a good one is a crap shoot. Quoted:
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If you think Realtors are worthless and don't earn their money, then stop bitching about it and represent yourself. If you aren't really willing to do that, then you just proved yourself wrong. Or better yet, get yourself a Realtor license and proceed getting rich without doing much work. Report back after a couple of years and let us know how it's going
Pretty sure your advice is why so many shit bag Realtors exist. A good one is worth his fee. Unfortunately given that most people don't buy or sell more than a couple properties in their life finding a good one is a crap shoot. I was trying to make a point. Everybody always thinks that Realtors don't earn their money, or aren't worth their cost, yet very few actually know how hard their Realtor works for them, or what they even do. These are the type of people that jump into the business thinking it's a get rich quick scheme, they work a few years and give up because nobody told them that they would have to work 24/7 365 days a year dealing with fickle clients that bicker about the littlest of things and rarely see your value. |
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Quoted: I haven't seen one around here in years... The radio ads are all for real-'TORS (emphasis on TOR) Not fake TORS or pseudo TORS (...do they only work for Skeletors?) WTF??? Yeah I wonder why they feel the need to put the emphasis on the real-TOR part of it. Sounds like a bunch of commission vultures trying to church up their job title. |
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A lot of hate in here for realtors. Some bust their ass for their clients for several months until closing. Sometimes closing don't happen, and they had to work for free. Some useless humans use realtors to look at houses for several months, then buy a house FSBO. Useless humans think realtor work for free. Its just like any other profession. You get a cross section of society, so you'll have good and bad. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. Quoted:
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Too much derp in here. A good realtor is worth twice the standard commission! Bad realtors give good realtors a bad name. Most people have no idea how terribly expensive a bad house purchase or sale can become. It can become ruinous for the average Joe. (I can't wait until this thread brings up how useless title insurance is and how unnecessary it is to use a lawyer to close on the purchase/sale of a home.) A lot of hate in here for realtors. Some bust their ass for their clients for several months until closing. Sometimes closing don't happen, and they had to work for free. Some useless humans use realtors to look at houses for several months, then buy a house FSBO. Useless humans think realtor work for free. Its just like any other profession. You get a cross section of society, so you'll have good and bad. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. This. There is a lot of work that goes into a real estate deal, and just because the buyer/seller doesn't see it, doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. Tons of time, effort, and expense goes into putting together a successful deal. Just because OP is cheap and doesn't realize that their realtor is probably busting their ass to make his deals work. Instead he is totally ungrateful for the work and feels like he shouldn't have to pay someone to do something that he thinks he could do himself (even though he hasn't). |
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Yeah I wonder why they feel the need to put the emphasis on the real-TOR part of it. Sounds like a bunch of commission vultures trying to church up their job title. Quoted:
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I haven't seen one around here in years... The radio ads are all for real-'TORS (emphasis on TOR) Not fake TORS or pseudo TORS (...do they only work for Skeletors?) WTF??? Yeah I wonder why they feel the need to put the emphasis on the real-TOR part of it. Sounds like a bunch of commission vultures trying to church up their job title. You sir, have summed it up nicely. There is nothing I can add here. 
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A bad apple can make the whole bunch look bad.
In the end, a good Realtor serves to provide a buffer between buyer and seller, removing emotion from what can otherwise be an emotional transaction. I've seen it first hand: it's the house you've raised your kids in, where your daughter learned to ride a bike. You spent your life here. As such, people tend to value their own home based on their experience and memories, as opposed to market forces and market pressures. And, sellers get offended when buyers don't place the same value on memories and experiences. IMO, there's no other appreciating asset that has that kind of emotional attachement. So, as long as that phenomena exists, there will be a place for an intermediary in the transaction. Whether the brokerage firm deserves 7%, is another discussion entirely. |
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This is the only way I will buy a home. The closing attorney was 150 bucks. I can negotiate myself. Think to yourself when your real estate broker drives up in a 50k Cadillac. Scum of the earth including car salespersons, lawyers and current pres of usa. fbho Quoted:
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? Just use a real estate attorney. Flat fee. Represents your interests.This is the only way I will buy a home. The closing attorney was 150 bucks. I can negotiate myself. Think to yourself when your real estate broker drives up in a 50k Cadillac. Scum of the earth including car salespersons, lawyers and current pres of usa. fbho Is it not fair that a real estate agent can afford a $50k car? I'm not sure I understand your hatred for the fact that some realtors make decent money. They also work all week, plus nights and weekends. A good realtor is essentially on-call 24 hrs. You seem pretty butthurt |
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Also, there is something to be said for using a well respected realtor from a well respected brokerage. When sellers are reviewing offers, they are far more likely to take an offer coming from an agent like Windermere, Coldwell Banker, etc than some shitty Redfin agent. They know that the realtor they'll be doing the deal with is capable to putting together a contract and assessing whether or not they'll be able to close smoothly instead of having the deal fall apart.
And what did you expect the agent to do after they got their commission check? The deal is over, what do you want them to do, come over to your house and jerk you off? Did you need something, call the agent and they told you to fuck off? |
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I'm not a fan of them either, but in my case we lucked into our situation....
We were looking for homes in a set price range and our realtor had shown us complete crap. He then showed us a foreclosure which he would be representing on the sale side, before it was even listed. Well he ended up being worthless, but we got the chance to offer on that house before it ever listed. We ended up with the home, he got double commission and we got the house we wanted without it ever going to market. So in the end it worked out, but he was a real ass. I would not use him again nor would i recommend him. He showed up at closing with a bottle of wine, for the banker
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I'm not a fan of them either, but in my case we lucked into our situation.... We were looking for homes in a set price range and our realtor had shown us complete crap. He then showed us a foreclosure which he would be representing on the sale side, before it was even listed. Well he ended up being worthless, but we got the chance to offer on that house before it ever listed. We ended up with the home, he got double commission and we got the house we wanted without it ever going to market. So in the end it worked out, but he was a real ass. I would not use him again nor would i recommend him. He showed up at closing with a bottle of wine, for the banker I'm not saying that the realtor you used wasn't a douche, but if it was a strange transaction, or one that required some fancy footwork on the financing side of things, it's not uncommon for the agent to try to show their appreciation for the mortgage broker for jumping through lots of hoops. It protects their relationship with the mortgage guy and allows them to continue asking favors during difficult transactions. That said, when we bought our first house, our agents gave us a tool kit, a bunch of old yard equipment (shovels, loppers, etc) and a hefty gift card to a pizza place nearby. It also sounds like you had unrealistic expectations regarding what you could get for what you were willing to spend. It's not as though the agent wanted to take you to a ton of shitty houses, that's just what was available in your price range. Were there homes that you found online that were within all of your criteria that the agent didn't find? I suppose if the agent had taken you to nicer homes that were outside of your price range, you'd have whined about that too. When we bought our house, all we saw were a ton of shitty houses. You know why? They were in our price range. If we had spent an additional $50k, the house would have been much nicer. But we didn't, and we bought a house that needed some serious updates. |
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I'm not a fan of them either, but in my case we lucked into our situation.... We were looking for homes in a set price range and our realtor had shown us complete crap. He then showed us a foreclosure which he would be representing on the sale side, before it was even listed. Well he ended up being worthless, but we got the chance to offer on that house before it ever listed. We ended up with the home, he got double commission and we got the house we wanted without it ever going to market. So in the end it worked out, but he was a real ass. I would not use him again nor would i recommend him. He showed up at closing with a bottle of wine, for the banker How do you expect the realtor to be helpful when representing the buyer and the seller? You should've asked for another agent to represent you in that deal. An ethical agent should've explained to you at that point they'd be representing both sides of the deal and neither side gets good representation. Then agent should've refereed you to another agent in their office. |
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A lot of hate in here for realtors. Some bust their ass for their clients for several months until closing. Sometimes closing don't happen, and they had to work for free. Some useless humans use realtors to look at houses for several months, then buy a house FSBO. Useless humans think realtor work for free. Its just like any other profession. You get a cross section of society, so you'll have good and bad. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. Quoted:
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Too much derp in here. A good realtor is worth twice the standard commission! Bad realtors give good realtors a bad name. Most people have no idea how terribly expensive a bad house purchase or sale can become. It can become ruinous for the average Joe. (I can't wait until this thread brings up how useless title insurance is and how unnecessary it is to use a lawyer to close on the purchase/sale of a home.) A lot of hate in here for realtors. Some bust their ass for their clients for several months until closing. Sometimes closing don't happen, and they had to work for free. Some useless humans use realtors to look at houses for several months, then buy a house FSBO. Useless humans think realtor work for free. Its just like any other profession. You get a cross section of society, so you'll have good and bad. If people had a bad experience with a realtor, they should blame themselves for not finding a good one first. Im not seeing the problem there? If the realtor found them that house then she should still get her commision from the buyers. |
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They are just typical middlemen . If you've got no time to deal with the headaches associated in property transactions , and can afford to hand them that 3% , well have at it . I for one cant stand pushy salespeople and their fucking schtick  Quoted: And Female realtors who look smoking hot in their picture is average to ugly in real life  The Glamor Shot syndrome ....more masks , facades and truth-twisting . |
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A close friend of mine was looking to buy and flip a house and had the realtor that he bought his own house from take a look at it for him for another opinion.
She told him it was a horrible deal and not to do it so he didn't. A week later she bought the house and flipped it. If she got what she was asking then she made a very big profit. 
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